U.S. Involvement in the Vietnam War

From the late 1940s and until the fall of Saigon in 1975 American policy toward Vietnam was dictated by Cold War considerations --i.e. the imperative need as perceived by the American national security establishment to contain communist expansion in French Indochina, and, after 1954, to prevent a communist takeover in South Vietnam. The United States moved from indirect to direct involvement in combat operations in Vietnam in the mid-1960s because the administration of Lyndon Johnson concluded that the South Vietnamese Government was incapable of defending itself.

The Vietnam War had significantly debilitating, divisive and corrosive effects on American society. The inconclusive, frustrating and horrifying aspects of the Vietnam War eventually played a major role in reducing domestic support for it. The progressively deepening split in American public opinion concerning the war and the antiwar movement created a deep fissure between generations, social classes, political parties and within the national security elite. The war left a largely negative legacy on the American collective consciousness and body politic which accentuated public distrust of government, hampered military operations and foreign policy and led to governmental excesses during the Watergate scandal period. As a result of

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sion of the DRV or more destructive bombing of the north "for fear of starting World War III" (Edmonds 46). The DRV and the Viet Cong largely matched American reinforcements and fought the Americans and the South Vietnamese army (ARVN) to a draw while the political viability of the South Vietnamese government remained in doubt. This stalemate, coupled with growing domestic opposition to the war, led to LBJ's decision in 1968 not to run again for President and to authorize peace talks in Paris. President Richard Nixon (1969-1973) escalated "the bombing in hopes of driving the North Vietnamese to the bargaining table, while he simultaneously deescalated the ground war with his gradual troop withdrawals" (Mann 730). The Peace Accords of January 1973 produced complete American withdrawal from the war except for some air and logistical assets and aid, which progressively withered as domestic support for the war declined. ARVN proved incapable of withstanding successive DRV offensives which finally resulted in its defeat in 1975. Impact of the War on American Society During the War. Public support for the war waned as its inconclusive nature became more apparent. Until mid-1963, the relatively low levels of the conflict in Vietn
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Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

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